Washable Workwear Wednesday: Henley Pleat Black Blouse

If you’re looking for a great washable blouse for work, do check out NYDJ’s henley, which has won rave reviews from readers both here and on the main site. You can find the brand at a zillion different stores, but Amazon happens to have a ton of prints and sizes as low as $22 — the blouse pictured, which I think has an unusual but versatile pattern and color scheme, is only $26. Nice. NYDJ Women’s Floral 3/4 Sleeve Henley Pleat Back Blouse

So I’m not sure if this is really a question, but I’m wondering what other people do. My 13th month old goes to sleep at 7PM and used to sleep until 6:30-7, but has started waking up around 6 or earlier and then crying on and off. We still don’t usually get her until 6:30 or 7 because sometimes she’ll go back to sleep, or we’ll go into get her and she’ll be lying down eyes closed with her wubba (yet still letting out a loud cry every once in awhile?). But then I feel bad sometimes when we leave her, and then I go in and she’s standing and ready to get out. Should we start just accepting that she wants to get up at 6? Keep leaving her, maybe put a book or something to keep her busy?

Try leaving a book in there when putting her to bed for her to discover in the morning so you don’t have to go in at all.

Another option is to take her into bed with you. I take my youngest into bed with me when he wakes in the morning. He has a bottle and we cuddle/sleep for a half hour before getting up. Nicest part of my day.

I am in an identical situation (down to the age and the sleep/wake times–although the latest mine sleeps is 6:45). I generally will not go in before 6 unless she’s sick or really crying (not just whining). But once she’s standing and jumping, I accept that she is awake for the day and not going back down. Do you have a video monitor? That helps me see the difference between occasional wails but laying down/eyes closed, and full-on awake.

Is there any connection with her nap schedule? Sometimes the early wakings happen when she didn’t nap enough the day before. Or napped too much. Kids are so confusing.

My daughter (now almost 3) had phases like this. Most of the time we tried to leave her in bed, but sometimes she did “convince” us to come get her. But after a couple of weeks, she would start sleeping later again. When she got older we got her an OK to Wake Clock, but 13 months is too young to understand that.

Same! My daughter is 26 months and still goes through these phases. We don’t get her until 6:30 unless she’s truly crying (or has been up since like 5:30 and we’re feeling guilty). She has one of the Baby Einstein aquariums in her crib and is happy to turn the light on and look at the fish for a while if she is up early. As she gets older, she’s usually pretty happy to just wake up slowly anyway. She seems to appreciate having 10-15 minutes to wake up before we go in :)

Please talk to me about the different Pack ‘n Play options – just on Amazon I find at least five different models: Newborn Napper with Soothe Surround Technology, Reversible Napper & Changer LX, Change ‘N Carry, Newborn Napper DLX, and Snuggle Suite LX.

What are the must have features vs less useful? We’re in a town house, so thinking this will be a primary baby stash device on the non-bedroom floor. Hoping for longer usefulness beyond the newborn stage, and willing to pay more for extra things that others have found useful.

I see some have a vibrating component – so would this replace the need for a rock n’ play, or do I still ideally want one of those for more portability, whether to other rooms in the house or to travel with?

Will you use it as a bassinet/newborn sleep surface? If so, the base model with the bassinet. If not, the base model with no bassinet. We have the no-bassinet base model (Portable Playard) and it was like $50.

I’m a bells and whistles kind of person, but in this case, I preferred to go simple for the PnP and get the bouncer/rock n play that I actually wanted, rather than the one that came with the pack n play.

To make it into a changing station, get a pack of Chux (the blue underpad things) and lay one on the bassinet surface for changing the baby. No need to wash anything if you have a blowout–just mentally apologize to Al Gore and throw it all away.

Agree! We have the same base model with the bassinet/newborn sleep surface. Our daughter slept in it for the first 4 months of her life in our bedroom, and now we use it to travel. No regrets on not getting anything fancier at all! Our daughter is about 26 months for reference.

We use the Pack ‘n Play daily – it lives in our room and he sleeps in it every night. Personally, the only features you want in a Pack ‘n Play are the bassinet feature (which is different from but likely included with anything that has a Newborn Napper). We have the Reversible Napper & Changer version and I changed a diaper about 5 times in it before abandoning it completely. I’m pretty average height (5’6″) and bending over to change the diaper at that level was awful on my back. And “they” really discourage having infants sleep in the napper thing at night – I’ll let you make that call, but we moved our little guy out of it within the first month.

I think you still want a Rock n’ Play for more portability to move around the house. Pro-tip: if you watch sales etc you can get a basic model Pack ‘n Play for less than $50 — buy one to live at each Grandma’s house. Those things are portable, but it is a whole lot easier to not have to cart it along.

This is our situation almost exactly. We didn’t end up using the napper or changer more than 5 times total but the bassinet insert was great for months 1-4 in our room. Our kiddo was a swing lover, so between that and the move-able baby bjorn seat we were set.

We got a PNP w/bassinet (so it can be higher when the baby is little and cannot climb out–good for your back), a changer, and a little rocker thing. My baby quickly outgrew the rocker, so that was pretty limited use, but the changing table thing is nice to have. We also have the thing set up on our non-bedroom floor. It’s nice to have a dedicated diaper-changing spot–if things get messy, it’s easy to clean up baby, put down in PNP, and then wash up/deal with mess. We don’t have a rock n play.

Mine has the changing station and a newborn napper. We occasionally used the napper when kiddo was really little but used the rock n play more for naps. We still use the changing table part daily. It’s sort of our first floor base station. Lots of clothes and errant toys end up getting stored in it but it’s mostly our changing table.

Dissenting voice here – never had a PnP; sleeping was done in cradle/crib (after 7 weeks) and some in bouncer. The Kid preferred to be in the mix from early on and containment never was a real option; he was happier on the floor on a blanket or the Boppy.

For travel, including the week after we took custody but before we could come home, we had a Phil & Ted Traveller and I loved that SOOOOOOOO much. Much smaller and lighter than a PnP and we used it for travel sleeping until The Kid was past 3 when he outgrew it (but he’s very tall).

We never used a PnP either. Well, once when we were staying at the house of someone who had one. Kiddo slept in our bed (in a safe sleeping thing) or in her bassinet, or sometimes in a swing, and then in a crib… we didn’t contain her because before she was mobile, she wasn’t mobile, and after she was mobile hahaha she would not like being contained.

We inherited a Baby Bjorn travel crib and it’s freakin’ great and she loves to sleep in it (almost 3).

My 10-month-old (P) is currently in a nanny share with our friends’ 8-month old (L). In general, DH and I are on the same page re: parenting with the other couple, but today an issue arose that I’m struggling with. P is a really great napper, but L isn’t. The other couple says they are not against trying to sleep (nap?) train L, but they keep putting it off for one reason or another, and thus far have instructed our nanny to rock L to sleep, which can take upwards of a half hour. This was OK when the kids’ nap schedules aligned, because P would fall asleep first and the nanny would be free to focus on L. But now L has been waking up very very early and needs a nap long before P is ready for one. This puts our nanny in a bind – L won’t fall asleep if P is in the same room (P is very talkative), so the nanny’s only option to comply with the other couple’s instructions is to leave P in his crib to play by himself for the half hour or whatever it takes to deal with L. I think that is too long for a 10-month-old to be by himself, and I’m certainly not going to start waking him up at 5 AM (he sleeps till 7:30) to get him on the same schedule as L. Is it fair for me to raise the issue of sleep training with the other couple? I would hate to make it sound like I’m mandating that they change their parenting strategy, but I don’t really see any other option (short of breaking off the nanny arrangement, but I would hate to do that because it’s otherwise working really well for both of us).

Yikes, that’s tough. I wouldn’t suggest any type of sleep-training to the other couple, because that’s just going to end poorly. Would P be unhappy/crying if left alone for that half hour, or do you just think it’s too long? If P is happy, I’d let that be the solution to an otherwise good arrangement. If P is crying I think that’s a bigger concern. Also, if L is 8 months, this could very likely be a temporary sleep disruption. But if not, daycares get kids on the same sleep schedules all the time, so your nanny might need to step it up and just say “this is the way we have to do things.”

This is really hard. We’re very pro sleep training but people land on such different ends of the spectrum. Can you put it back on them? Can you say your not comfortable with your baby being left alone for 30 minutes, and you’d like them to think of a solution of what might work best to avoid that scenario?

Or put it back on the nanny to have that conversation with the other parents. She can tell them exactly why it’s a problem and that she’s not comfortable leaving P alone for that long. Or, she needs to do what a daycare does and get them both on a schedule.

I see–ours had a separate crib room, so they did not bother with any quiet time in the main room. They put them on a nap schedule when they turned one and were making the transition to the toddler room.

I would put it on the nanny, not the other couple. She is the professional and should be offering solutions here that do not involve leaving one baby or the other awake and alone for half an hour (unless doing so is part of a sleep training plan approved by the parents).

I had a terrible napper who would only nap when being held, and she just didn’t nap much during the day as an infant. The day care staff held her in the brightly lit, noisy main room when they could, put her down in the crib room when she seemed ready to sleep, and just dealt with it.

Exactly. This isn’t a problem for you to solve, it’s a problem your nanny needs to solve. Literally her job is to make sure she is meeting the safety and well-being needs of the two kids. If she can get them on the same schedule, so much the better. If not, I don’t see why she wouldn’t set the awake kid up with some toys in a confined, safe space (preferably with sight lines to the rocking chair) and then rock the other kid to sleep. I don’t think a half hour is too long for a 10 month old to play on his own, but that’s the mom-of-three “YES PLEASE PLAY BY YOURSELF FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE” in me talking. If you’re not comfortable with it, nanny moves on to plan C. She could take them both for a walk if the nap-resistor will fall asleep in a stroller. There are so many options here, but it’s the nanny’s job to figure out something that works.

Not much to add except I’m terrified my kid is going to be L. Although whatever needs to be done to get the kid to nap is fine with me, including nap/sleep training. Do you know if the other couple has tried/is ok with some training but L is just super resistant and a terrible napper? Or do they really expect a caretaker to give L solo sleep service for the remainder of his naps in this life? I can’t see that happening at daycare.

I don’t think you intended this, but this comment kind of stuck a nerve with me. I dislike when people imply that it’s either nap/sleep train, or rock for life. Both of my kids were rocked before all naps and nighttime as babies/toddlers, they stopped wanting it at different times after they turned one and are both great sleepers now (through the night, independently).

For OP: I think in this situation you need to bring your concerns to the nanny/other parents rather than speak to them about sleep training. You don’t want your child left alone for 30 minutes while he is awake. Then you all can come up with a mutually agreeable solution. baby carrier? bigger child-proofed area with video monitor so your child can play while L is getting put to sleep? etc.

No, I didn’t really mean it that way, I was being tongue in cheek. It’s also totally fine if that works in whatever scenario you’re in but I see it as less likely to work at a daycare or nanny share scenario because as the OP is stating, that means another child isn’t being tended to. I hope my daycare can rock my baby to sleep while also caring for the other children, but I sort of understand if they can’t given the 3:1 ratio.

I am relatively new to a nanny share, but I would not put this all back on the nanny. It sounds like that would put the nanny getting competing instructions from the parents, which we are trying to avoid. I like the idea of explaining to the other family that you are not comfortable w/your kid being left alone for 2 (I assume) half-hour + periods each day. See what they offer as a solution. And then I would have a rep from each family present in a discussion w/the nanny to talk about new naptime procedures. You can also see if the nanny has any ideas, but I do think you should be the ones to push back on the other family’s instructions.

I agree with this. I would definitely not frame it around sleep training – that’s not something you can dictate for another family, and I think you risk making the conversation much more volatile than it needs to be. But absolutely ok to say that you’re not comfortable with the current situation, and see what solutions they can offer. If they commit to sleep training, great! Other possibilities that occur to me include using a carrier or stroller for the other kid’s first nap, or rocking in a cradle (if she’ll lie down in it – she may be past that stage) so that the nanny can have at least a hand free to help your kid.

I don’t know but I thought my child was possessed by a demon last night. She was non stop whining, screaming, crying, defiant, and tantruming from the point I picked her up from daycare until she went to bed (screaming and crying). She took a break from whining only long enough to chew her dinner. Nothing I tried worked (bribes, threats, acknowledging her feelings, helping her take deep breaths, yelling, counting to 3, giving her a time out, giving me a time out– I tried everything I could think of). And of course DH is out of town for work. I have never been at such a loss as I was last night, when she was running through the house, fully nude, screaming with rage. Good grief.

This is mostly just a rant. My youngest moved up to a new classroom at daycare mid-December, so I had gotten some little “thank you” gifts for his teachers, but failed to actually deliver them yet. Now if I deliver them they look too much like holiday gifts, so I feel like I need to give something to his current teachers as well. And then if I give gifts to the new teachers, I feel I need to give something to my older child’s teachers since they are in the same daycare. And then

This is just a rant. My toddler moved up to a new classroom at daycare mid-December, so I had gotten some little “thank you” gifts for his teachers, but failed to actually deliver them yet. Now if I deliver them they look too much like holiday gifts, so I feel like I need to give something to the toddler’s current teachers as well. And then if I give gifts to the toddler’s new teachers, I feel I need to give something to my older preschooler’s teachers since they are in the same daycare. And then if I I feel I need to give something to the support staff as well. I really like our daycare and all the teachers and staff, I just dislike the societal burden of giving gifts.

And yet if I don’t give anything to anybody, I feel like I’m being a jerk and not acknowledging all their hard work. Argh!

Maybe I should just keep the “thank you” gifts I had already purchased for the toddler’s old teachers and eat them myself — they are nice chocolates (like ones I would be excited to get as a gift).

$10 board book for the child, $10 bottle of wine for the couple (or $20 champagne). No matter how much money you have (short of the insane amount of money needed to hire a night nurse every night for the child’s first 5 years — which would be roughly $500k), being a parent is exhausting.

I’d love to hear people’s experiences with tubes surgery for their young kids. Our 10 month old is having it tomorrow. I know it’s a very quick, routine surgery but I keep hearing conflicting things like she’ll be cranky and pukey for a few days to she’ll be totally normal after. Any advice or things you wish you had known before?

Not sure if it was from the surgery but my daughter was very cranky and pukey afterward. We actually went to the ER in the middle of the night afraid it was a complication (it wasn’t). Some people get very nauseous coming off of anesthesia. So I would not be surprised if it’s a rough few days. That being said, IT’S 100% WORTH IT AND YOUR LIFE WILL BE CHANGED AFTER. Seriously. Since my kiddo got tubes at 13 months she’s barely been sick a day since.

My son puked in the car on the way home (from the anesthesia, I do the same thing) but then was totally fine. He had his adenoids out the same day and was eating and being normal the rest of the day.
Also, to second what everyone else said, totally worth it!

My son was cranky and sad and confused coming out of anesthesia, but the nursing staff and my FIL warned us that it would happen. We went home, he slept for a few hours, and he was completely normal after that. It was life-changing surgery–he went from missing a day or two of daycare every 2 weeks to rarely being sick.

The whole process took us longer than we expected for a 10-minute surgery. Kiddo was last in line for surgery, so we waited a couple of hours to even go to pre-op (our hospital does it by age, and at 21 months, he was the oldest). Then he had to eat and drink something before they’d let us leave, although eventually the nurse bent that rule and discharged him. All in all, we arrived at 6:30 am and left around 3 pm.

Our daughter was totally fine and back to herself within 30 minutes of getting home (if not by the time she finished her popsicle at the hospital 15 minutes after the surgery). She was a bit older though and just under 2 when she had her tubes put in. We had it done on a Friday AM and kept her home for a quiet weekend Saturday and Sunday but she was really just fine. And NO MORE EAR INFECTIONS!! She still has the constant daycare drippy nose but without the tubes I think she would have been on her 3rd round of antibiotics by now.

I think the cranky/nausea will just depend on the kid. Ours was fine by the time we arrived home. If you have the choice to go back with her while she goes under consider who you want to do this. My DH did it because I knew I would be nervous and I didn’t want my son to feel that. DH said it was a very strange feeling when our son went under, he just kind of went limp. The doctors had warned him that this would feel strange, but something to think about if one of you might be better able to handle that.

Agree with previous poster though 100% WORTH IT, IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Seriously, he hasen’t had an ear infection since, or really any major daycare missing illness since.

Yes I intellectually knew it wasn’t a big deal, but watching him go under was very upsetting. I’m not a dramatic or emotional person but I definitely fought tears on my way back to the waiting room. It was harder than I expected.

I use screens for emergencies including plane trips, but other tricks we have used are stickers (stickers on the window, name each one, peel them off, put them back on), little toys, snacks, singing quietly.

I flew alone with my kid around 13 months, before he was into screens. We had a connecting route with 2 2-hour flights. Except when he was napping, the main thing he needed was undivided attention. I read to him, played peek-a-boo with him, and played with whatever toys were his favorite. As long as he had my undivided attention, he was happy. (I did get him his own seat and had him in the infant carrier–our last time using it.)

I am trying to figure out something festive to make for Christmas Eve dinner for our family, including the little ones, that isn’t competing with Christmas itself. And preferably something that is pretty easy to throw together. We’re doing a big family brunch earlier in the day. I’d love any suggestions!

My family got into the habit of having tamales on Christmas Eve when my parents lived in Texas – I think it is a Mexican-American tradition. We always buy them from a restaurant, which makes it especially appealing.

Anyone got fun, low-effort lunch ideas for an 11-year-old’s birthday party? She wants a sushi tray, but I can’t imagine that most of the kids will actually eat it. Or do most 11-year-olds like sushi? She doesn’t want pizza.

IDK about kids and sushi. FWIW, my 3 yo looooves “shoo-shee” and always steals mine when I get it for dinner. It horrified my (very non-foodie) mom the first time she saw my kid eating it, but I’d guess that lots of kids eat it these days.

where is the party being held? my brother in law was super into sushi at that age, but i’d imagine that not all kids are. could you do a sushi tray, but also some other stuff that is an asian theme. are you looking to order stuff in or cook? if you are looking to cook you can make some kind of shredded chicken with an asian flavored sauce in a crock pot and serve it along side rice? Or you could have the sushi tray and maybe egg rolls and dumplings? I realize this is all pricier than pizza.

The party will be at home and I want to avoid cooking. It will be a small party and birthday parties are one of the areas where we feel okay about spoiling the kid, so I am not too worried about cost, but I am worried about things like dumplings or tempura getting cold and being icky. I like the suggestion above for chicken skewers.

On a side note, I think this is the last themed party with formal activities that we will have, as the kids seem to be outgrowing them now that they’ve hit middle school. Next year I suspect it will basically be a bunch of kids watching movies, giggling, and getting food all over my couch. I am relieved because these parties are so much work (except when I can convince her to have them at an outside venue), but also a little sad because crazy themed parties are one of my mom things.

Ours did, more or less. By 10 months, they had The Kid down to one nap a day most days and we kept that schedule as much as possible as did other infant parents there. It made weekend playdates more doable because everyone was on the same 12:30 to 3:30 nap schedule.

I have this blouse in several colors and love them all. They’ve held up well through the wash and the occasional dryer trip. Definitely doesn’t run small – TTS or a little large. Nice and long, has some shape when tucked in, but I also used these untucked to hide a pregnancy for a few extra weeks. Great pick.

I ordered this blouse and thought it ran very large. I usually wear an XS top and mistakenly didn’t check the size chart before ordering (I have learned the errors of my ways!), but when it came I was swimming in it. It does run long though as CCLA says, coming from someone who is about 6′.